Is a Broader Peace Movement Finally Here?

A new antiwar movement that
can really challenge U.S. militarism is being born. Today, people from
across the political spectrum join together opposing U.S. war and
empire. They cite a
combination of events that present a “historic opportunity to redirect
U.S. foreign policy down the pathways of peace, liberty, justice, respect
for community, obedience to the rule of law, and fiscal responsibility.”

For too long
Americans who oppose wars have felt powerless to stop the war machine.
Not since the early part of the 20th century has there been
a strong antiwar movement that Americans from across the political
spectrum could participate in. The Come
Home, America letter
shows the beginning of such a broad-based movement.

No matter where you are on the political spectrum, you will find people
with your political philosophy. Signers include advisers to Presidents
Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton; former
presidential candidates of the Libertarian, Socialist, and Green parties,
as well as an independent, Ralph Nader; representatives of think
tanks such as the Institute for Policy Studies, the Independent Institute, the Future of Freedom Foundation, the Hoover
Institution, the Ludwig von Mises Institute, and
Just Foreign Policy have signed on. And editors from a wide range of
publications, including The American Conservative, Antiwar.com, Black
Agenda Report, Black Commentator, FireDogLake.com, Liberty for All,
Liberty for America, OpEdNews.com, The Progressive, Progressive
Review, Raw Story, OpEdNews.com, and Reason have all
signed on.

To challenge U.S. militarism,
all Americans who oppose war need to become active.
The military-industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned of
in his final
speech to the nation
has become deeply embedded. The security budget (military, intelligence,
and homeland security) makes up 66 percent of discretionary federal spending,
and both
parties agree that
even this bloated, wasteful budget, at a time of massive deficit spending,
cannot be cut.

The budget choices Congress
is making, putting the military and security state before meeting the needs
of the people, reducing the debt, and cleaning up the degraded environment,
puts a stark choice before the American people. Everyone should
now see how war spending affects all of us. The
U.S. spends $2,000 per person
on the military, so a family of 5 is spending $10,000 per year on war.

In recent congressional votes,
the potential of a right-left alliance to stop wars has been seen.
On June 13, 2011, the House of Representatives passed the Sherman
Amendment to the military
appropriations bill by a vote of 248-163. The vote to end funding of the Libyan War
enjoyed strong bipartisan support, with roughly equal majorities from
both parties. Earlier
in the month, Rep. Dennis
Kucinich (D-Ohio) introduced a bill demanding an end to the war in Libya.
The threat of passage forced House Speaker John Boehner to offer a watered-down
but still critical alternative bill. Again, the power of cross-partisan
opposition to war was shown.

In the senate a cross partisan antiwar
alliance is beginning to show. This
July 4 Sens. Jeff
Merkley (D-Ore.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), and Tom
Udall (D-N.M.)wrote
a column in The New
York Times urging an
end to the Afghanistan War. They conclude: “It is not too late to
change course in what has become the longest American war in history.
In light of our considerable national needs, both security and domestic,
we urge the president to bring our troops home at last.”

These recent events show challenging
militarism may not be as hopeless as some imagine, but that to be effective
the antiwar movement needs to be a politically independent movement
that reflects the views of all Americans who oppose war, not just one
side of the political spectrum. A 2011 Reuters/Ipsos poll shows a majority of Americans prefer cutting
military spending to reduce the deficit rather than taking money from
Social Security and health programs. We must
build an antiwar movement that challenges people from both parties
who oppose us, while giving support to antiwar elected officials no
matter what their party.

The letter describes a perfect
storm of events that make this a good time to challenge weapons and
war spending. At the top of the list is the faltering economy, which
can no longer sustain spending as much as the rest of the world combined on
the military. The long-term debt, like the short-term deficit, is in large
part caused by war. As deficits increase and Americans face austerity
budgets, support for war spending will continue to decrease.

The limits of war have become
evident. The most powerful military in world history cannot defeat people
who seek to protect their country from foreign domination. Wasn’t this
the lesson from our own American Revolution? More and more Americans
see how the U.S. military operates through WikiLeaks dicslosures, the
Abu Ghraib photos, and the thousands of kill-squad photos of soldiers
posing with dead Afghans. These are not easy
realities to face, but they are realities that explain how war undermines
U.S. national security, creating more enemies
daily.

The rule of law is consistently
violated in U.S. wars, particularly Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution,
which specifically states that Congress has the authority to declare
war, not the president. James Madison described this as the most
important constitutional provision, but it is routinely ignored. President
Obama has taken the nation to war in
Libya and has spent $1 billion on the attack without a congressional
appropriation. Madison and other founders would be calling for President
Obama’s impeachment over this unconstitutional act of war. Tactics used
in recent wars, including torture and the widespread abuse of prisoners,
further undermine the rule of law. We see alleged whistleblower Bradley Manning treated brutally before trial while the crimes
exposed by WikiLeaks go uninvestigated and unpunished.

More Americans see war is undermining
U.S. national and economic security. The growth of stateless terrorism
will not abate as long as the United States continues waging wars that
commonly feature torture, midnight raids on families, and the killing
of innocent civilians. The mass-scale suffering war brings is something
Americans can no longer close their eyes to but must honestly face and
mobilize to end.

Americans of all political
viewpoints are encouraged to join this new American antiwar movement.
The first step is to
sign on to the letter.
In doing so you will be joining people like:

We chose the name Come Home,
America because it is a unifying theme that brings all Americans together.
While popularized by George
McGovern in his
1972 presidential candidacy, the words
ring true today:

From secrecy and deception
in high places, come home, America. From military spending so wasteful that it weakens our nation, come
home, America. From the entrenchment of special privileges in tax favoritism,
from the waste of idle lands to the joy of useful labor, from the prejudice
based on race and sex, from the loneliness of the aging poor and the
despair of the neglected sick — come home, America.
Come home to the affirmation that we have a dream. Come home to the
conviction that we can move our country forward.
Come home to the belief that we can seek a newer world, and let us be
joyful in that homecoming, for this “is your land, this land is my land — from California to New York island,
from the redwood forest to the gulf stream waters — this land was made
for you and me.”

The phrase has its founding
in the historic speech
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
gave opposing the Vietnam War. He called on Americans to unite against the
violence our nation was spreading through war:

It is time for all people
of conscience to call upon America to come back home. Come home, America.
. . . I call on Washington today. I call on every man and woman of good
will all over America today. I call on the young men of America who
must make a choice today to take a stand on this issue.

The letter concludes by citing
our first president:

George Washington urged
Americans to “cultivate peace and harmony with all” and to “avoid overgrown
military establishments,” which are “hostile to republican liberty.”
It is time for Americans to reject fear and militarism and embrace the
highest, noblest aspirations of our heritage. It is time to come home,
America.